Ill Conceived Hand Tools

[Jared McMahon]

I found the below monstrosity on Jim Bode's site. I'm sure history has no shortage of poorly thought out inventions or good intentions gone very wrong, but boy howdy this thing has got to be reasonably far up that list.

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[Andrew Kertesz]

The only thing out of place on that tool is the plane. Many roofers used a hatchet/axe that was a hammer and had the slot for pulling nails. These were especially handy when doing cedar shake roofing.

[Caspar Hauser]

I don't see it as a monstrosity at all.

[Brad Pickens]

Actually, along with the other uses for cedar shingle roofing, you need a block plane to weave the corners on a cedar shingle sidewall. That looks like a particularly unhandy method of doing so, but the idea was presumably to cut down on the tools in your belt and the combination is not as far fetched as it would seem.

[John Coloccia]

Does it come in O1?

[David Weaver]

Does it come in O1?

Comes in aluminum, white metal, and recast banjo tone ring metal.

[Joe Bailey]

the odd thing is that it seems hardly used ...

[Jared McMahon]

Clearly I haven't done enough (any) roofing work. At first blush, that thing looked to me like an excellent way to end up putting holes in yourself. Apparently I'm missing out. :o

[Dave Anderson NH]

Jared, Are you suggesting that you've missed out on putting holes in yourself?:D Personally, I've never had any problem myself. The problem has always been to AVOID putting holes in myself.

[Chuck Nickerson]

What makes the box and pamphlet great is they're in exactly the style TFWW used for their 2012 catalog.

Looks like Joel and his team nailed it.

[daniel lane]

I'm with the guys in that I can see some utility in this, Jared, but I can't imagine wanting one, even if I did much shingling. I've always been amused by the chisel rasp:

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Looks like I could do some serious damage to myself with one of those. However, my favorite ill-conceived tool is this one:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8yzcPvG6Ek

[Shawn Pixley]

I always hated when the framers used framing hatchets. They would lift framing members by sinking the blade into the stock. Nothing would end up square, plumb, and true.

[Chris Griggs]

Haha! Daniel, you're full of funny references these days. I love scrubs!

[Gary Herrmann]

Ill conceived tools of yesteryear are the ones that go for big money now.